Understanding yourself is the first step towards becoming more effective at connecting with others.
My favorite tool/model in helping to understand myself and how I relate to others is William Marston’s DiSC Model (1972). I was first introduced to DiSC 10 yrs ago while I was managed a call center team of over 100 sales representatives. A year later I was certified in DiSC Personality Assessment.
Marston developed a theory that people illustrate their behaviors via four different personality styles. William Clarke, a psychologist, then constructed these into the famous DiSC model we study today. Imagine a pie divided up into four slices. Below are the four main personality styles that complete Clarke’s DiSC pie chart.
D = Dominance
i = Influential
C = Conscientious
S = Submissive
In my next four blogs I will dive deep into each one of these behavior styles. The first step is to understand within which behavior quadrant(s) you belong. The second step is how to identify another person’s behavioral style and the third step is how to leverage your personality style with your perception of another person’s style in order to connect better with them. Sound productive? It’s a long-learning process that takes years of attention and focus but it works!
Interesting Side Note: I’m a HUGE comic book fan so I must mention that William Marston (pen name Charles Moulton) was not only a psychologist but also a comic book writer and the creator of Wonder Woman. Marston was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2006.